Flood Risk Assessment in Tiverton

Tiverton sits at the point where the River Lowman meets the River Exe, with the Grand Western Canal running along raised ground on the town's eastern edge. A flood risk assessment in Tiverton has to account for two rivers, a canal that holds water above parts of the town, and a market town built low against all three — which is the work Unda carries out here, whether the reason is a planning application, a property purchase, a mortgage or insurance query, a BREEAM assessment, a sequential or exception test, or a surface-water drainage strategy.

Every one of those starts from the same local picture: where the water comes from, how high it has gone before, and what the council and the Environment Agency expect a scheme to prove before it can go ahead.

Call 01293 214444 or email enquiries@unda.co.uk, or start a quote below, and one of our experienced flood risk consultants will get back to you within 60 minutes.

The Grand Western Canal holds an estimated 180,000 cubic metres of water above parts of Tiverton, and Devon County Council's own flood risk assessment for the area names a breach of its banks as a real hazard to people and property below — a risk this town carries that most flood maps never show.

Flood risk assessment in Tiverton at a glance

• Main watercourses. The River Exe and the River Lowman, meeting on the western side of the town centre.
• Lead Local Flood Authority. Devon County Council.
• Highest river level ever recorded. 3.58m on the Exe at Tiverton, 23 December 2012.
• Worst flood on record. December 1960, when around 500 properties were affected.
• Distinctive local hazard. The Grand Western Canal, an impounded body of water running through the town.
• Growth allocation. Around 2,358 new homes east of the town under Mid Devon Local Plan Policy S10.

Local flood risk and hydrology in Tiverton

Tiverton's flood risk is dominated by two rivers rather than one: the Exe, flowing south from Exmoor through the middle of the town, and the Lowman, its tributary, joining the Exe on the western side. Both carry named Environment Agency flood warning areas covering specific streets, and the Grand Western Canal adds a third, less familiar hazard along the eastern edge of the built-up area.

The Environment Agency's flood warning area for the River Exe at Tiverton names Kennedy Way, Bridge Street, West Exe and The Walronds as the parts of town it covers. A second, separate warning area for the River Lowman at Tiverton names Tiverton Business Park, Chapel Street, Station Road, Lowman Green, Blundells Road and Tumbling Fields. Further downstream, a wider Exe warning area running from Tiverton towards Exeter takes in Bickleigh, Thorverton Mill, Nether Exe, Brampford Speke and Upton Pyne, which matters for any scheme close to the A396 corridor south of the town.

Mid Devon District Council's Strategic Flood Risk Assessment defines a functional floodplain for Tiverton, alongside Cullompton and Crediton, and the Flood Map for Planning follows the Exe and Lowman corridors through the town with Flood Zones 2 and 3. Under Devon's climate change projections, up to 7 square kilometres of land across Mid Devon could move from Flood Zone 2 into Flood Zone 3 as peak river flows increase — a district-wide figure, but a reminder that zoning here is not fixed.

Surface water and sewer flooding are also recognised risks in the SFRA, and groundwater is a live issue on individual sites: a flood risk assessment for Tidcombe Hall, on the edge of Tiverton, specifically addresses groundwater ingress in its drainage design. Groundwater and surface water are not separate reports — they are sources of flooding that every flood risk assessment in Tiverton has to screen alongside the rivers and the canal, in the way our note on flooding and drought risk sets out more broadly.

You can check current conditions on the Exe and the Lowman at Tiverton on the Environment Agency's live gauges, station 3246 and station 9008, or on our own live river levels map. For a first read on any address in the town, our flood risk map screens the same open data used throughout this page, and our note on how accurate flood maps really are explains what a national map can and can't tell you before a site-specific assessment is done.

Check flood risk anywhere in Tiverton

Tiverton is outlined below. Screen any postcode in the town or the surrounding Mid Devon area against Environment Agency data for rivers and sea, surface water and the planning flood zones, with a climate outlook to 2125. It is an indicative first pass, not a substitute for a site-specific assessment — for the full national tool see our flood risk map.

Historical flooding in Tiverton

Tiverton has a long, well-documented history of flooding from both rivers, running from a flood in 1625 that destroyed 53 houses to the sequence of storms in autumn and winter 1960 that produced the worst flooding ever recorded in the town. The Environment Agency's own gauges show the Exe's highest level, 3.58 metres, was reached as recently as December 2012.

• 13 October 1625. A major flood swept through the valley; 53 houses were destroyed in Tiverton alone.
• 1866. Described at the time as the greatest flood on the Exe in 20 years.
• 1884. The lower parts of Tiverton flooded as the main sewers and drains choked.
• 30 September – 4 December 1960. A sequence of storms brought repeated flooding: the Lowman put Lowman Green under four feet of water within a day; by early December, the Exe rose around 12 feet in an hour, broke its banks through Leat Street and West Exe, and flooded roughly 500 houses, some to a depth of 8 feet, marooning residents of the Walronds almshouses. It remains the worst flooding on record in the town.
• 7 December 2000. River Lowman flooding affected Tiverton Business Park and homes near Station Road and Little Silver.
• 23 December 2012. The highest level ever recorded on the Exe at Tiverton, 3.58m, with flooding reported at Tiverton Industrial Estate.
• 21 November 2016. The highest level ever recorded on the Lowman at Tiverton, 1.53m.
• 12–14 January 2023. Devon County Council investigated River Exe flooding under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act; the Exe near Stoodleigh, just upstream, reached 3.80m, and the A396 was impassable in places.

The full Section 19 investigation report for the January 2023 event sets out what Devon County Council found upstream of the town, and our note on whether flood maps are accurate is worth reading alongside a record like this one, where the worst events pre-date the datasets a flood map draws on.

Planning and drainage policy for development in Tiverton

Devon County Council is the Lead Local Flood Authority for Tiverton, responsible for surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses, while the Environment Agency leads on the Exe and the Lowman as main rivers. Any development at risk from flooding, or capable of increasing flood risk elsewhere, has to satisfy a stack of local and national policy before it can be approved.

The starting point is the Mid Devon Local Plan 2013–2033, whose Policy S10 sets out the strategic allocation for Tiverton itself. The Tiverton Neighbourhood Plan adds its own Policy T7, on minimising the risk of flooding, which sits alongside the Local Plan rather than replacing it. Both are read against Mid Devon's Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (Levels 1 and 2), which defines the functional floodplain running through the town and the flood zones a scheme has to be tested against.

On drainage, Devon County Council's Sustainable Drainage System Guidance for Devon (2023) sets the local standard, applied alongside Defra's non-statutory technical standards for SuDS and, where infiltration is proposed, BRE Digest 365 on soakaway design. The county's Local Flood Risk Management Strategy 2021–2027 sets the wider direction for how Devon manages local flood risk, including in Mid Devon, under the framework of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. For the wider planning framework a Tiverton scheme sits within, our guide to NPPF flood risk guidance covers the national policy behind these local documents, and our surface-water drainage strategy service picks up where the SFRA leaves off. Early infiltration questions can be checked against our BRE 365 infiltration rate calculator and drainage calculators.

Development and growth around Tiverton

Tiverton is one of Mid Devon's main growth towns. Land east of the town at Post Hill is allocated for the Tiverton Eastern Urban Extension — around 2,358 new homes, a school, employment land and a country park under Policy S10 of the Mid Devon Local Plan — and every phase of that growth sits inside a town already shaped by two rivers and a canal.

Mid Devon District Council adopted a masterplan for the Eastern Urban Extension in 2014, updated in 2018, and development has been proceeding in phases since; over 1,750 of the allocated dwellings were already completed or committed by the time the Local Plan Review was adopted. Individual sites within and around the town, such as Tidcombe Hall, have their own flood risk assessments addressing the local mix of fluvial, surface water and groundwater issues. The scale of growth, combined with the SFRA's functional floodplain mapping, means a flood risk assessment and often a drainage strategy now accompany most planning applications of any size in Tiverton. Where national mapping alone isn't enough to set accurate levels, flood modelling fills the gap for sites close to the Exe, the Lowman or the canal, and a wider read of how this fits into the county is set out on our Devon area page.

How Unda helps in Tiverton

Unda has prepared flood risk assessments and drainage strategies for sites across Devon, including schemes shaped by the Exe, the Lowman and the surface water and groundwater issues that come with them. Our flood risk consultants know Tiverton's flood history, its named at-risk streets and the Mid Devon Local Plan policies a scheme here has to satisfy, and every assessment is built around current Environment Agency data rather than generic national assumptions.

That means starting from the same sources referenced throughout this page — the EA's live gauges on the Exe and the Lowman, the Mid Devon SFRA's functional floodplain, and the specific policies in the Local Plan and the Tiverton Neighbourhood Plan — rather than a one-size-fits-all template. It also means being direct about risks a national flood map alone won't show, such as the Grand Western Canal. You can read more about the team behind these reports on our about page, and about the wider group of flood risk consultants who sign them off.

Tiverton's position on the Exe also connects it to Exeter further downstream and to the wider West Country context covered on our Exeter area page and Somerset area page.

Flood risk assessments for every situation in Tiverton

A flood risk assessment in Tiverton might be needed for a planning application, a property purchase near the Exe or the Lowman, a mortgage or insurance query, or a BREEAM assessment on a commercial scheme — and a site here might also need a sequential or exception test, or a surface-water drainage strategy, depending on where it sits.

A flood risk assessment, a sequential or exception test and a drainage strategy are three distinct reports. They often travel together in a planning submission around the Exe or Lowman floodplain, but they answer different questions: is the site safe, should the development be here at all, and where does the surface water go.

Unda prepares flood risk assessments in Tiverton for planning applications, for property purchase and conveyancing, for mortgage and insurance queries, and for BREEAM Pol 03 credits. Where a site sits in a higher flood zone, a sequential or exception test sets out whether a lower-risk alternative was reasonably available. Where surface water is the issue, a sustainable drainage strategy works out how runoff is managed, and can extend into discharging drainage conditions or preliminary drainage design as a scheme progresses. Groundwater assessment and flood modelling both sit within these reports rather than standing apart from them, brought in wherever a site by the Exe, the Lowman or the canal needs more than the national maps can show.

• Flood risk assessment for planning in Tiverton. The core report for a planning application, satisfying the NPPF, the Environment Agency and Mid Devon District Council.
• Flood risk assessment for property purchase in Tiverton. For conveyancing, where a search has flagged Exe or Lowman risk and the actual building needs assessing.
• Flood risk assessment for insurance in Tiverton. Property-specific evidence for brokers and underwriters.
• Flood risk assessment for BREEAM in Tiverton. Structured around BREEAM Pol 03 for commercial schemes.
• Sequential and exception test reports for Tiverton sites. The locational test for higher flood zone sites.
• Surface water drainage strategies (SuDS) for Tiverton developments. Working out where runoff goes and how it is managed.
• Groundwater assessment within a flood risk assessment in Tiverton. A defensible design water table for sites like Tidcombe Hall.
• Flood modelling for sites on the Exe, Lowman or canal. Hydraulic modelling where national mapping alone isn't enough.
• Discharge of drainage conditions. The detailed stage to discharge a pre-commencement or pre-occupation condition.
• Preliminary drainage design. An early, outline read before layout and land value are affected.

Local flood risk management and emergency contacts in Tiverton

Several organisations share responsibility for flood risk in Tiverton: Devon County Council as Lead Local Flood Authority, the Environment Agency for the Exe and the Lowman, South West Water for sewers, and the Devon, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Resilience Forum for multi-agency emergency response.

To report flooding to a property, Devon County Council has an online reporting form, and its who to contact about flooding page routes enquiries by source. To sign up for flood warnings by phone, text or email, use the gov.uk flood warning service, and the South West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee sets wider investment priorities across the area. For sewer flooding, South West Water's reporting page takes it from there. In a flood emergency call 999; for a power cut call 105. Rising insurance costs in flood-affected areas are covered in our note on the UK housing market and flood risk.

Frequently asked questions about flood risk assessments in Tiverton